Irving triggered a fresh discourse by saying that public NBA salaries do more harm than good.
Despite the fact that the NBA season is still a few months away from starting, it appears like the players aren’t exactly lounging around.
In this day and age, when NBA stars have more social media accounts than ever before, some of them use those accounts to express their opinions and call out things they find unsavory in the basketball community.
When it comes to speaking his mind, particularly on non-basketball subjects (e.g., COVID vaccines), few have been more consistently vocal than Kyrie Irving.
This time, the Dallas Mavericks star brought up an issue that rarely arises from the players’ perspective; he questioned whether it is still reasonable for NBA salaries to be fully public.
“I find it very interesting that, of course, people will know how much the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies make. They will know different avenues of nine to five, in terms of the contract structure, but when it comes to sports, it’s like, you know exactly the pay scale, the details of it and then it gets discussed as though there isn’t any real live consequences to that,” Irving opined in one of his live streams
“I wonder how much that puts a target on someone’s life, where you know what’s going on, you see it very causal, but it helps the overall growth of a sport, the sexiness of it, like, ‘Oh, guess what Kai, or so and so is making this,’ record breaking historic numbers… But I look at it, is it too much information at some point though?” the shifty point guard added.
Players were receiving criticism depending on how much money they make
It’s not hard to understand where Kyrie is coming from. The moment a player signs a new deal, the figures are everywhere. Salary, incentives, player options broken down in seconds by every major media outlet. The business of basketball has become part of the content. And fans, who play a massive role in financing the league through TV ratings, merchandise and ticket sales, have naturally grown used to knowing exactly how much their favorite players are getting paid or just how much their home team splurges around.
From one angle, that transparency strengthens the connection between fans and teams. It gives everyone something to talk about. But on the flip side, those same numbers often become weapons used against the players.
Just ask Ben Simmons. The former No. 1 pick signed a five-year, $170 million contract extension with the Philadelphia 76ers in 2019, and ever since then, he has been on the receiving end of daily criticism, the guy who is robbing the teams in front of their eyes.
Whether he was sidelined due to injury or holding out during his exit from Philly, Simmons’ paycheck has been a punching bag, and that’s exactly what Kai was and still is trying to avoid.
Nothing but wishful thinking for now
While WNBA players continue to speak out in hopes of getting their paychecks closer to what they deserve, Kyrie’s suggestion floats in a bit of an opposite direction. And while his concern is understandable, it’s hard to imagine the league ever going back on this particular norm.
The league, especially the NBA, is built around its superstars. And salaries, whether we would like to admit it or not, sell stories and drive the necessary “drama.”
For Irving and probably many more players, a world with less exposure to how much dollar bills they are making would offer some peace of mind, but for now, these kinds of speculations are reserved strictly for podcast discussions.
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